Embodiments relate to a communication system and, more particularly, to providing visual assistance to a user at a first location from an assisting user at a second location.
Various types of computing systems using displays are known. Examples include, but are not limited to desktop computers, smart phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, head mounted systems, etc. A head wearable display (“HWD”) device, such as a helmet-mounted display or eyeglass-mounted display, is worn on the head of an individual that has one or more small display devices located near one eye or, more commonly, both eyes of the individual, user, or wearer. The HWD device may be monocular (where one eye has a view screen), biocular (where both eyes see the same scene on the same screen), or binocular (where each eye has an individual view screen).
Some HWD devices only provide for simulated (computer-generated) images, as opposed to real-world images and, accordingly are often referred to as “virtual reality” or immersive devices. Other HWD devices, typically those which are a part of a head mounted display (“HMD”) system, superimpose (combine) a simulated image upon a non-simulated, real-world image. The combination of non-simulated and simulated images allows the user or wearer of the HWD device to view the world through, by way of a non-limiting example, a visor or eyepiece through which additional data relevant to the task to be performed may be superimposed onto the forward field of view (FOV) of the user. This superposition is sometimes referred to as “augmented reality” or “mixed reality.”
Combining a non-simulated, real-world view with a simulated image can be achieved using a partially-reflective/partially-transmissive optical surface (a “beam splitter”) where the surface's reflectivity may be used to display the simulated image as a virtual image (in the optical sense) and the surface's transmissivity may be used to allow the user to view the real world directly (referred to as an “optical see-through system”). Combining a real-world view with a simulated image can also be done electronically by accepting video of a real world view from a camera and mixing it electronically with a simulated image using a combiner (referred to as a “video see-through system”). The combined image can then be presented to the user as a virtual image (in the optical sense) by means of a reflective optical surface, which in this case need not have transmissive properties.
Currently, technology associated with combining the real-world view with a simulated image is still in its infancy. As such, though simulated images may be included on the real-world view, the sort of information which may be included is limited. Manufacturers and users of such technology would benefit from advances with computing systems where such systems may assist a user at a first location with a task, such as, but not limited to, maintenance, collaboration, or training by interacting with a second location with use of an augmented reality image of a subject object.